New Talent or Proven Voices/Faces

[CleveFan]

Since there has been some debate on whether Cleveland should hire those who has been on-the-air before or bring in someone new, whether from another market or college, I thought I would start a topic.

Which is or should be a preferred method - Hiring new people or proven talent? I can go for a little of both.

 

[CleveRadioInsider]

For weekends I definitely would hire new faces. This is where they get their experience and chance to move up. If you must go the familiar voice route then AM drive and PM Drive can go with the talent that Clevelanders just can't seem to live wtihout. Middays and nights put some fresh new talent in there.

 

[vjm]

You need both.

You can't go with all newbies in any walk of life.

You need veterans to bring stability and be a power of example for the newbies to follow.

Then when the newbies get the proper seasoning, they can replace the vets, and then eventually mentor a fresh set of newbies.

 

[Capulet]

I thought I would start a topic.

Which is or should be a preferred method - Hiring new people or proven talent? I can go for a little of both.

If the music is not right it doesn't matter who the " talent " is.
Music formats live and die on the music, not who is saying " That was- this is ".

Break it down. There's 46 minutes of music in an hour. 12 minutes ( or more )
of commercials. That leaves aboput 2 minutes of DJ patter......inconsequential amount of time in the big picture.

Come on man. If live DJs really mattered voice tracked dayparts would tank.

Guess what? They haven't.

 

[johnbasalla]

DJ's- or should we say program hosts - do matter when they do more that the audience is interested in. Java Joel has been live on WAKS and asks a question that listeners can call up and react to. "The Latin Assassin" on WENZ takes calls around their Top 7 and 7 countdown for listener recall and prizes. The DJ's should still say "that was ... This is, because many listeners get annoyed when you play a song and never tell what it is.

 

[Tim]

It started in the 70's: consultants got radio stations to have their jocks read "liner cards" and pretty much stop talking and play "more music". That was, IMHO, the beginning of the end for music station air "personalities" (other than mornings).

Over the years, with rare exceptions, radio taught it's listeners that just about anything except the music they like is a huge negative. And, most listeners learned that "lesson" radio foolishly taught them.

Now, decades later, with Pandora and many other sources of music readily available, what's inbetween the music is the only thing that a local station has to offer over one of those services or a nicely-stocked MP3 player.

The difficult task for radio today is to try and re-teach the masses in 2011 to want to listen to "content" between the songs.

Another huge challenge for music radio stations is, however....after 30+ years of telling on-air people to read liner cards then "shut up and play the music"...try finding very many on-air people who are creative enough to make entertaining or interesting comments in less than 10 or 15 seconds. Finding those personalities in 2011 is one diffcult task...assuming listeners today even care what they have to say.

Radio did it to itself.

 

[Capulet]

It started in the 70's: consultants got radio stations to have their jocks read "liner cards" and pretty much stop talking and play "more music". That was, IMHO, the beginning of the end for music station air "personalities" (other than mornings).

Now, decades later, with Pandora and many other sources of music readily available, what's inbetween the music is the only thing that a local station has to offer over one of those services or a nicely-stocked MP3 player.

Another huge challenge for music radio stations is, however....after 30+ years of telling on-air people to read liner cards then "shut up and play the music"...try finding very many on-air people who are creative enough to make entertaining or interesting comments in less than 10 or 15 seconds. Finding those personalities in 2011 is one diffcult task...assuming listeners today even care what they have to say.

Thats a pretty accurate take on what happened to on air personalities.

Liner cards then became " value added " live commercials. In a way I'm glad that
crap is going away.

You would think radio would see the oppotunity to differentiate from iPods by providing some clever content from live human vices between the records.
Instead, this in-between the records entertainemnt opportunity is now called " imaging " . Imaging is more about selling "10 in a row" , than cracking jokes.
The Lake had some funny pre-recorded jokes in between the tunes for awhile there when they first came on, but that is so rare.
Someone has to actually be clever and write that type of material! Oh, they probably expect to get paid too.

The " craft " of concocting and delivering clever banter in 15 second intervals
between records is lying in the trash can next to the 45 record spindles
and radio weekly airplay charts with pictures of the DJs. You can see this stuff at the rock hall though.

 

[BoredOp930am]

Capulet and all-

These are all good opinions on what happened to radio, but I'd like to add some opinions of my own, for what it's worth(not much, but I'll say 'em anyway!)

It was mentioned on this board somewhere about new talent "cutting their teeth", so to speak, at smaller stations such as Sandusky, or perhaps Mansfield, but those opportunities are long gone, because stations in places like that are pretty much satellite-spewers. Or, if they do have a couple of actual jocks, they spew syndicated garbage during the evening, and have NO overnight person. So, that's pretty much a dead-end...

Also, having the sales department running the programming department was death-knell for creativity within the programming staff. What sales says, goes. Ugh. That's why there's NO overnight jock or anything on except "Coast to Coast AM" worth listening to between midnight and 5am. Sales people don't want to sell overnight spots because they don't make the big commissions, but they fail to realize the "big picture"; IF they sell a LOT of spots to a LOT of clients, they CAN make money. A pile of rocks is a pile of rocks, whether it's made of big rocks or small rocks. I know-stupid analogy, but it does illustrate the point...

I suppose it boils down to this-as long as stations can sell spots, and make some money, they really don't care if anybody listens or not. Sad.

 

[Tim]

Stations don't care if people are listening as long as they sell spots? Ahhhh...that makes no sense at all.

Without enough listeners, the businesses who buy commercials will get no customer feedback or increase in floor traffic and will stop advertising on a station if it didn't have listeners.

The programmers who went to the more music-less talk policy in 70's and 80's+ created the attitude that local personalities were unnecessary since all listeners wanted was more music-less talk...so, why not go with networks or automation and save fixed costs?

Programmers & consultants did it to themselves...that's why there's few on-air jobs today.

 

[ClevelandRadioFan]

At least in the sports world, I'm a bit tired of all the retreads that keep getting chances. Hasn't Mike Cairns worked for every available medium and station in Ohio? Same with Jeff Phelps, Les Levine, etc,etc.

Same with weather people -- all retreads.

But, good for them, I guess.

 

[vjm]

At least in the sports world, I'm a bit tired of all the retreads that keep getting chances. Hasn't Mike Cairns worked for every available medium and station in Ohio? Same with Jeff Phelps, Les Levine, etc,etc.

Same with weather people -- all retreads.

But, good for them, I guess.

As far as TV personalities go, WOIO weekend meteorologist Jon Louffman has the Cleveland TV "Grand Slam"--having worked for all 4 Cleveland TV newsrooms (WKYC, WEWS, WJW, WOIO/WUAB) at various points.

I do believe he's the only one who has the "Slam".

Investigators Carl Monday and Tom Meyer each need to add channel 5 to their resumes to get the "Slam".

Anybody else one step away from the Slam?

I don't think anybody else is a "Slam" winner.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Someone thought AJ Colby has hit for the cycle, and then some with his recent return to 8, but I don't recall him ever at Reserve Square.

 

[vjm]

Someone thought AJ Colby has hit for the cycle, and then some with his recent return to 8, but I don't recall him ever at Reserve Square.

Correct (and an oversight by me).

AJ has not worked for WOIO/WUAB, thus he's in the "one short of the Slam" club with Meyer and Monday.

The more I look into it, Loufman is indeed the only Cleveland TV Grand Slam winner.

 

[74WIXYGrad]

If anybody is looking for new talent...I'm available on the weekends after 2 on Saturday...And if I work at this hard enough, I could make this a running gag here on R-I ;D

 

[vjm]

If anybody is looking for new talent...I'm available on the weekends after 2 on Saturday...And if I work at this hard enough, I could make this a running gag here on R-I ;D

But do you do windows?

 

[CleveRadioInsider]

What about Shane Hollett? He was the weatherman on at least 3 stations in Cleveland along with WMJI

 

[74WIXYGrad]

If anybody is looking for new talent...I'm available on the weekends after 2 on Saturday...And if I work at this hard enough, I could make this a running gag here on R-I ;D

But do you do windows?

Windows with my current employer and Linux with my cheap a** former employer.

 

[vjm]

What about Shane Hollett? He was the weatherman on at least 3 stations in Cleveland along with WMJI

Majic was always Shane's main gig.

But Hollett did have cups of coffee at various points at 3, 5, and 8 IIRC.

 

[XtraXtra]

Also, having the sales department running the programming department was death-knell for creativity within the programming staff. What sales says, goes. Ugh. That's why there's NO overnight jock or anything on except "Coast to Coast AM" worth listening to between midnight and 5am. Sales people don't want to sell overnight spots because they don't make the big commissions, but they fail to realize the "big picture"; IF they sell a LOT of spots to a LOT of clients, they CAN make money. A pile of rocks is a pile of rocks, whether it's made of big rocks or small rocks. I know-stupid analogy, but it does illustrate the point...

I have a better analogy. What radio has done would be like Giant Eagle deciding to be open only from 9 am to noon and 3 pm -7 pm because those are their most profitable hours, and closing the doors the rest of the time. The rest of the time, they don't make profit so they wouldn't be open.

If you have to buy milk at 10 pm, you can go somewhere else - and people do. Sooner or later you get out of the habit of patronizing Giant Eagle and find somewhere else.

 

[Capulet]

Also, having the sales department running the programming department was death-knell for creativity within the programming staff. What sales says, goes. Ugh. That's why there's NO overnight jock or anything on except "Coast to Coast AM" worth listening to between midnight and 5am. Sales people don't want to sell overnight spots because they don't make the big commissions, but they fail to realize the "big picture"; IF they sell a LOT of spots to a LOT of clients, they CAN make money. A pile of rocks is a pile of rocks, whether it's made of big rocks or small rocks. I know-stupid analogy, but it does illustrate the point...

I have a better analogy. What radio has done would be like Giant Eagle deciding to be open only from 9 am to noon and 3 pm -7 pm because those are their most profitable hours, and closing the doors the rest of the time. The rest of the time, they don't make profit so they wouldn't be open.

If you have to buy milk at 10 pm, you can go somewhere else - and people do. Sooner or later you get out of the habit of patronizing Giant Eagle and find somewhere else.

Thats a clever analogy!